Macquarie University is joining forces with major companies including Optus and the National Australia Bank to put Sydney's Macquarie Park on the map as a destination for startups, investing millions of dollars to develop it as an innovation precinct.

The new Macquarie Park Innovation District was announced by Macquarie University deputy vice chancellor professor David Wilkinson at The Australian Financial Review Innovation Summit on Wednesday, with other organisations including Johnson & Johnson, Abbott, Konica Minolta and AMP Capital also committed to helping develop the area.

Professor Wilkinson said he expected the district to be completed within five years because Macquarie Park already had the right foundations.

"All the economic and physical aspects are here. There's a world class university right next door, there's a freeway, railway station, shopping centre and a residential area – but it's not connected," he told The Australian Financial Review.

Optus Business managing director John Paitaridis has been leading Telstra's rival's push into cyber security.
Louise Kennerley

"There's two key pieces of work we're doing. We're getting everyone connected through incubation spaces and an incubator program to bring people together to work on projects and the second thing is setting up a governance structure ... with a steering committee to facilitate pulling all of this together."

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Macquarie Park generates $9.8 billion in gross domestic product annually, growing at 6.8 per cent a year, accounting for the second largest GDP contribution in the state, just behind the combined CBD and North Sydney.

Despite this, Professor Wilkinson said the area was not currently attractive to startups.

"At the moment a startup wouldn't think to go to Macquarie Park because there isn't flexible working space or a critical mass of what startups need. So we think we'll create flexible space on campus, and provide access to HR and legal expertise and shared services be it labs or intellectual property, or whatever it might be," he said.

"It's like a jigsaw puzzle where we have the pieces, but they're not joined and there are a few missing."

The park, which is about 30 minutes from the Sydney CBD and covers about 350 hectares, is already home to 180 large companies, 200 smaller businesses and employs 45,000 staff alongside Macquarie University with its 40,000 students.

Macquarie University also houses 23 businesses on the site, ranging from two- and three-person operations to Cochlear. As part of its new strategy, it intends to take on more companies, but they will need to be linked to the university and it will not act simply as a landlord.

Optus Business managing director John Paitaridis said as the district grew the telecommunications company would continue to add collaborative features, flagging a possible driverless shuttle-bus service, smart cafes, hackathons and partnerships with other international innovation districts.

"As a leading employer and technology innovator in the Macquarie Park precinct it is critical for the corporate, education and government sectors to collaborate and engage on the development of technology and its practical use now and in the future," he said.

The success of the new innovation district will come down to three things things: how many entrepreneurs and high value jobs it can attract to the park, how many research and development grants the area wins, and how many executives are undertaking educational opportunities.

Macquarie University has already been given a $1 million grant from the NSW government to refurbish some on-campus space to became a startup incubator, which will open in two months.

The uni has also committed about $7 million to a standalone incubator. Beyond this, how much it can do will come down to the financial support of the big businesses and the state government.

Both locally and globally there are many similar innovation districts, such as Melbourne's biomedical precinct around Parkville.

While the aim of Sydney's latest innovation district is to attract startups and foster innovation, Professor Wilkinson said it was not about stealing businesses from other areas around Sydney, instead focusing on attracting interstate and international talent.

"We don't just want to shuffle the jobs around the city," he said.

"This is about making the whole pie bigger, it's not about who gets which bit. I think what's happening in Melbourne is brilliant and will be highly successful."